October, 2015 meeting

We were only five but we made the most of the time we had to dive a bit deeper into topics.   Here's what Marty, Deanna, Sandy, Arleen, and Betsy are working on.

Deanna decided she needed to add more quilting to her Avalon quilt so she has been free motion quilted in leaves and vines.  See the second photo for the detail.

Deanna's Avalon Quilt

Quiltin detail for Deanna's Avalon Quilt

 Marty has been quilting her Dragon Wall Hanging and asked for opinions on adding beading embellishment.  We auditioned various styles using the gold beads Marty had with her and tried out some black beads from Betsy's stash (courtesy of Sandy).

Marty's Two Dragons Playing Ball quilt

Marty has also started joining the "footballs" for her wedding ring quilt and will experiment on whether she wants to make rows and join rows together or just add a "block" at a time.  All beautifully hand-pieced.

Sandy didn't make it down in time to enter her challenge quilt for the Alameda County show, so instead she expanded it to make a baby quilt.  You can see the center left panel that was the original challenge of Harmonic Convergence design.

Sandy's Harmonic Convergence baby quilt

Betsy had made a second Sticks and Stones Jelly Roll lap quilt to use up the blocks she had made with the stones going in the wrong direction.  She added more oranges and pinks in this version and distributed these new blocks evenly across the old purple blocks.

Betsy's second Sticks and Stones quilt

Betsy also made a Rail Fence style quilt for Lori, her daughter-in-law's mother.  Lori loves orange and this jelly roll quilt delivers on that color.

Modified Rail Fence Jelly Roll lap quilt

 Quilting was simple straight line.

July 2015

We met at Mary's house where paintings from Obie's Aunt Kathy Barieau were on display for viewing and selection.

Three new challenge tops were done and we had a discussion on borders with the conclusion to stick to the instructions which give a range for border size.

Mary's left, Joan's top right, Betsy's bottom right

Arleen and Marty brought work done in an EBHQ class on marbling.  Arleen had already cut and pieced her fabric into a quilt top!

Arleen's marbled fabric quilt

Marty had two other samples

Arleen had also quilted and bound her wool quilt which is entered into PIQF.  Check out the binding and see if you can tell why the Force is with her!

Betsy had been working with half square triangle quilts and has a baby quilt (auditioning the turquoise border)

a "nose to toes" quilt,

and Big Blue, a queen sized quilt.

Marty brought a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that she hand quilted.  The quilt top was one her mother had and the setting is the Garden Path.

Here is a detail of the hand quilting.

Mary has been quilting the baby quilts and is now binding one that has lovely circles quilted into the border.

June 2015 meeting

We met at Joan's house this month and had a great time.  Here's a link to the potato chip cookies she served that everyone loved--http://ericasrecipes.com/2013/04/potato-chip-cookies/.

Next meeting at Mary's house (come prepared to pick out some paintings to take home).

I took pictures on my phone and not all turned out great.  Here are the acceptable ones.

A Grandmother's flower garden quilt Joan had that she brought out to show Betsy how the edges can be finished and the quilting pattern.

Arleen's quilts, this one based on an alteration to a pattern in the Quilter's Newsletter.

Quilting detail on Arleen's quilt

Deanna's latest baby quilt

Joan's quilt with a French braid border and dragonflies painted in the center block.  She "quilted the heck" out of the border. 

Joan's sherbet quilt paper pieced, and now quilted.

 Joan's three pieces so far in the volcano series

 Another quilt by Joan

 Marty's house quilt made a while ago.

And another quilt by Marty

And Marty's "test" quilt for our challenge due in September.

Betsy had two baby quilt tops made, the first a Missouri Star block

May 2015 photos

Marty suggested a challenge that we all participate in to have completed for our September meeting.

Create a Harmonic Convergence quilt using directions by Ricky Tims that Marty got at the Silent Auction.  Use your own colors and follow the size given in the directions which have been distributed by email to the Quilt Therapy members.

Here are photos from the May, 2015 meeting at Betsy's house.

Marty's bear from the Sue Rasmussen class

Mindy was selected to test this Sugar Candy quilt for a designer who lives in Germany. You can follow the designer at ellisandhiggs@blogspot.com

An abstract from Bobbie

A paper-pieced quilt from Joan

Arleen's tumbling blocks

Mary's baby quilts--turtles

And foxes

 And quilting detail on the last baby quilt from Mary

Betsy was finishing UFO's so had a lot to show
Hand applique blocks finally turned into a wall hanging

 Quilting detail of work by Melissa Quilter

 Hand applique now a wall hanging

 And from the silent auction, the Grandmother's Flower Garden block that are being sewn together for a queen sized bed quilt.

We had a fun January meeting at Marty's house and a delicious dessert. 

There was quite a bit of discussion about hooking and stripping (remember it WAS a fun meeting) and we had show and tell, including getting to see photos from the wedding of Deanna's son.

And, while eating that dessert, we managed to discuss and agree on our 2014 challenge.

Here are what my notes reflect as the Challenge rules:
1.  Each will make a 18" square quilt and have it finished by our Sept meeting.
2.  Sandy will purchase the challenge fabric and distribute to each Therapist at our Feb meeting a fat quarter (for which we will each reimburse her).
3.  The challenge fabric must be use in the quilt and the amount of the fabric used must be sufficient to easily discern that it is the challenge fabric.
4.  These quilts will be entered as a group for the 2014 Alameda County Arts Quilt show.